A Boutique Photography Studio

April 12, 2011

Our First Photography Exhibit!

It’s up! It’s ready! Have you seen it? “The Artistry of Professional Photographers” is on display in the upstairs gallery during the month of April at Spiva Center for the Arts in Joplin. This fantastic group of talented, professional photographers are showcasing their artwork in this fun, interactive exhibit:

I am so happy to be a photographer, instead of say… a museum exhibit-putter-together person. Until we put on this exhibit at Spiva Center for the Arts, I had no idea not only of how much work was involved, but how much thought goes into the placement of everything and the overall feeling of the exhibit. Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the chaos!

Thankfully, Spiva has this little cart chock full of everything you could possibly need for hanging anything imaginable on any surface imaginable. If you wanted to hang a live elephant on a wall made of jello? I’ll bet you Shaun could figure out a way!Creative vomit. This is what the inside of my mind looks like all the time.We had so many great pieces to work with! Here are the artworks from (left to right) David Scott, Patty Jesse and Steve Lagow. Gorgeous!Here’s Shaun the miracle man himself, demonstrating the proper height for hanging, using levels and lasers and various spectacular mystery items.And then David went to work on the rest. Hmmmmm… that “X” marks the spot is so tempting….The the theme of the exhibit is “Inspired by a Song”. Each photographer chose a song and photographed an image based on the music. The exhibit is actually interactive! You can listen to the song while looking at the image. Several of the images, when paired with the songs, brought me to tears. Such a moving experience. (Of course, there are exceptions. I dare anyone to get all the way through Brian Demint’s song!!!)Starting to come together!Here’s the intro wall. We invited folks from the community to loan us their older professional portraits… some great stuff!More samples of the photographers’ work and business cards!My dad gets the full experience. Jon and Julie Stephens, of Calotype photography, bringing their piece by and checking out the exhibit!Our kids loved the exhibit. Not sure if it was the photos or getting to work the mp3 players…. : )

We’d love to have you stop by to check it out! Our Opening Night Reception will be happening Thursday, April 21st from 5-7pm. Come stuff your face with candy, mingle with the artists and vote for your favorite to win the “People’s Choice” award! A BIG thank you to Spiva – for their encouragement and excitement about this project, all the artists who are participating, MPix for their donation to the event and super-assistant Allison Rogers, for her key role in organizing all our chaos!